10 Hour Endurance Race

10 Hour Endurance Race

It has been over 48 hours since I completed my first endurance race, so now feels like an appropriate time to record my thoughts & feelings. Let’s just start from the very beginning.

Back in April, a lot of people I know were doing a 24 hour run for cancer. To show support, I decided to go and cheer them on with Aspen (super cute Frenchie, pictured below).

We spent over an hour there, encouraging runners as they ran past us. I was so moved and motivated by the runners that I decided that day I was going to sign up for an “endurance” race. Lucky for me there was one coming up in June, so I signed up for it. I didn’t think twice. I just did it. I mean what did I have to lose? It was a 10 hour run, but in those 10 hours I could run as much or as little as I wanted to. No big deal, super low key.

Somehow in the time between when I signed up and the day the race took place, I managed to convince eight of my friends to sign up to do the race with me. I know, I know – some kinda friend I am. In my defense though, I merely suggested they do it. They paid & signed themselves up!

Leading up to the event, I had a goal in mind. My goal was to complete a marathon (26.2 miles). If I felt good, I would try to do a 50k (31.069 miles), but a marathon was my goal. I had never run more than 13.10 miles at one time, so doubling my personal best was a long stretch.

I wish I could say I spent the next two months training my ass off for this race, but I can’t because I didn’t. Truth be told, I really didn’t increase my mileage at all. I run several times a week, but I didn’t get nearly the mileage I should have considering the fact I have never run more than 13.10 miles at a single time. Of all the races I have signed up for, I have only not done one of those races and that was because I was sick. Hell, even when I screwed up my knee during a 10k, I still ran a half marathon the next day. Short of an illness, nothing was going to stop me from doing this run.

I didn’t get sick, so at 3:50 am on Saturday, June 12, 2021, I woke up to get Bentley & Aspen situated before I left to go to Smithfield, VA where I would spend my day running loop after loop after loop with an awesome, hilarious, raunchy group of friends who are just as crazy as me.

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We started setting up our camp around 5:30 and it was pouring down rain. Figures. Why wouldn’t we start a 10 hour run in the middle of a monsoon?! Fortunately, there was no lightning, so we were able to start running promptly at 7 am. There were 165 runners all together, and we were permitted to set up camp. My crew and I had several tents and tons of drinks and food to survive the day. This picture is some of the tents that were set up. That whole section along the tree line was packed with tents.

We started at 7 am in the pouring down rain and I feel like it didn’t stop raining until at least 12 pm. It is hard to remember the exact timelines, but I changed clothes and shoes at around 11.25 miles in. My clothes were soaked and getting heavy, and my socks and shoes were soaked, which was causing my feet to hurt from being water-logged. I remember my friend Megan telling me before the run to take a change of clothes, because it would make all the difference. And IT DID! I felt so much better after I got out of my wet clothes, socks, and shoes.

The miles (loops) seemed to be flying by. It got difficult between miles 7 and 8, but I just took my time and walked as I needed to. The course was really hilly, so I gave myself permission to walk the hills and run the rest as much as I could. It got really hard again at mile 18, and I really wanted to quit. I told myself that running 18 miles was a huge accomplishment, and still more miles than I’d ever run before. I was prepared to stop running at that point, but fortunately I wasn’t even half way done with the loop yet. I think I had two more miles of the loop still to go, so that would have put me at 6 miles from my goal. After doing 20 miles, I was not about to stop with 6 miles to go. So I kept going.

I feel like the last couple of loops went by relatively quickly, but once I got to 26.2, I was D-O-N-E. My body literally would not move another quarter of a mile. I think also, my mind was satisfied with that distance, so mentally & physically I was just done.

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BUT I COMPLETED A MARATHON, which is double the longest distance I’d ever done before. And THAT was a huge accomplishment. My time wasn’t anything remarkable, but I don’t care. This was a training run/baseline for me. It gave me a good indication of what it feels like to run a marathon. Now I know what to expect and my time will improve greatly with a significant amount of training.

Final thoughts:
1) I am SO GLAD I did this. It really gave me the confidence boost I needed when it comes to my running abilities.
2) While I did do it without properly training, I don’t recommend it, and I wouldn’t do that again. Not preparing your body to run 26.2 miles puts you at risk for injury. I am fortunate that I didn’t get injured [not even a single blister], but it isn’t worth the risk.
3) I would definitely do it again. I mean I already signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon, but if not – I’d still do it again.
4) I have some really awesome [doesn’t even properly explain] friends & I love them so much & I hope they know how lucky I am to have them.
5) I AM A MARATHONER!

When things got really hard & I wanted to quit, I reminded myself that if it ere easy, everyone would do it.